Writing at Clutch magazine [5], Kalisha Buckhanon says that for educated and accomplished black women, bad dates often come with a unique problem: being "stricken with the heavy task of overturning stereotypes that demean the experiences we ought to have in this world."
... That is the problem. They have been discussed, ad nauseam, by writers and cultural critics the world over. Most people would fail this quiz:
Did you see a Black woman wearing glasses or reading a book on TV this week?
Did you actually see a Black woman at work -- in her office, at a meeting, negotiating a contract, or delivering a monologue -- on any one of the sitcoms that claim to portray Black people in a more positive and progressive light? ...
For those of us who flow into our own recipes, we exist in a state of arrested development that silences us outside of a very narrow group of people. It is troubling to see shock on wait staffs' faces or amusement on grocery clerks' faces when we pronounce "foie gras" or inquire where the tahini sauce is. I once had to ask a White man at a party to move away from me; he was visibly shocked that I not only knew who National Book Award winner Joan Didion was, but that I was actually reading her latest book. I went from relaxing to thinking: How could a woman assembled at a gathering of writers, professors, teachers, and artists not know who Joan Didion is? Oh, I am Black.
Read Kalisha Buckhanon's entire piece at Clutch magazine. [5]
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